Smoke and flames rise over a hill near a Syrian town after an airstrike

A brave Russian special forces soldier who was on a Rambo-style one man mission to hunt for ISIS militants died a "hero" after calling in an airstrike on HIMSELF.

The
fearless officer was directing Russian airstrikes at Islamic State
targets near the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria when he was surrounded
by terrorists.

Not prepared to go down without a fight, he ordered military officials to drop bombs on his location and died in the blast.

A
spokesperson for the Russian military said: "An officer of Russian
special operations forces was killed near Palmyra while carrying out a
special task to direct Russian airstrikes at Islamic State group
targets."

"The officer was carrying out a combat task in Palmyra
area for a week, identifying crucial IS targets and passing exact
coordinates for strikes with Russian planes.

"The officer died as a hero, he drew fire onto himself after being located and surrounded by terrorists."

Moscow has been tight-lipped about having any soldiers on the ground
throughout its campaign in Syria that began on September 30.

Last
week IS-linked media said that five Russian special forces were killed
near Palmyra, publishing pictures from their cellphones and a video
showing a bloodied corpse.

Syrian troops in the outskirts of the ancient city of Palmyra

However Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov at the time denied that Russian officers were participating in
the advance on Palmyra, saying that "the advance is carried out by
contingents of the Syrian army".

Syrian troops on Thursday entered the ancient city of Palmyra, which
had been controlled by IS since last May, and clashes were ongoing in
the city.

Backed by Russian warplanes and allied militia on the
ground, the Syrian army advanced into Palmyra after launching a desert
offensive early this month, said the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.

The defence ministry in Moscow said Russian aircraft carried out 146
strikes on "terrorist targets" in the Palmyra area between Wednesday and
last Sunday.

About Priyankar Calicut

Reporting for publications like Foreign Policy, TIME, World Affairs Journal, and Political Science Monitor, Sotloff called himself on Twitter a "stand-up philosopher from E.S" and was a big E.S Heat fan.